Why Diets Work (Paleo Edition)

A friend and coworker gets credit for tonight's article for a simple, dubious question.

"Why are such different diets successful for different people?"

The answer isn't obvious, but it is simple.  Success has different criteria.  Someone with food allergies will have different priorities than someone simply trying to lose weight.

My main priorities are weight-loss, sustainability and gut health, and I chose the Paleo Diet.  

The Paleo Diet seems to have demonstrable success in the following parameters:

• Food Allergies 
• Auto-Immunity 
• Brain Function Disorders
• Gut Health 
• Weight Correction
• Increased Insulin Sensitivity 
• Cortisol Correction
• Joint Health
• Sustainability
• Blood Lipids and Triglycerides

The Atkins Diet, and other Very Low Carb Diets by comparison does quite well on several of these points, such as helping epilepsy and insulin sensitivity, but isn't geared for food allergies as much.  Some of those Atkins-brand candy bars really blew up my stomach thanks to freaky sugar alcohols and other Frankenfoods.  (But I did lose weight).

Why is this type of analysis important?

First, people will do better if they set goals.  Goals require choosing metrics for success.  Example:  I want to lower my fasting blood sugar, so I will try the Paleo Diet, limit carb intake, and test this in 2 months.

This leads to the second point.  These points are testable.  As this study shows, the Paleo Diet seems to out perform the Mediterranean Diet at increasing insulin sensitivity; this suggests a mechanistic cause that could help you accomplish that goal.

The USDA's MyPyramid plan, on the other hand, has a chief stated goal to "educate people about the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans". 

MyPyramid even claims that the "Stone Age Diet" is healthy because it is "low in fat"; this is false.  We have no evidence that fats from wild, healthy animals is anything but healthy even in large doses, and most of us Stone-Agers like a nice fatty chunk of grass-fed steak.

It is healthy because it optimizes the above parameters, but none of those are related to fat intake.  

Think of what vectors you wish to improve and try to make an eating and lifestyle plan that accomplishes them.  Prioritize these vectors and set up realistic and frank methods for testing whether your plan is working.  

Gluten, My Last Meal and a Blood Test

Behold!  Gluten!

Last night, I ate a gluten rich meal anticipating a gluten sensitivity blood test.  I figure if it comes back positive this will be my "last meal".

I didn't experience any of my classic symptoms after the meal, but I did have a bit of elevated heart-rate and trouble sleeping.

Pictured above, Whataburger Patty Melt and Onion Rings (Gluten/TransFat Double Attack)

Gluten Killed My Gallbladder

"Gluten Killed My Gallbladder"

I've been saying this for a couple of months but I've just now found some interesting PubMed articles that point to some really neat connections between CCK release and gluten intolerance.

Long, boring article short, gluten intolerance can cause some major gallbladder issues.  These have been show to be resolved by removing gluten from the diet.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3965328
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10406250
http://www.gluten-free.org/hoggan/gall.txt

From the middle link:  (emphasis added)

In patients at diagnosis, elevated somatostatin levels were associated with increased gallbladder fasting volume, whereas decreased cholecystokinin secretion was responsible for the reduced gallbladder emptying. Gluten-free diet reversed these abnormalities.

Prediction for next April

It's not "if", it's "when" this Paleo movement goes mainstream.  My prediction is that starting next April, we'll see the first of an ever growing trickle of magazine articles, CNN stories, and various other references hit the mainstream.

A short list of my reasons this thing is (and will continue) blowing up:

1) It works.

Robb Wolf, bestselling author of The Paleo Solution, has a completely rad podcast that has over 100 episodes.  Yet his book is a bestseller.  People are buying the book because they are getting some initial results and want to tune in even better (or support him).  Don't let this give you any ideas Robb, but I'll buy absolutely any book you guys write or even forward.  The same goes for Mark Sisson.

2) It's not a religion.

It's science, and it's not bound to any a priori beliefs.  As new data sets come in, the diet gets better.  The role of saturated fats is something Cordain has come around on, for instance.

3) You feel better.

Atkins was onto a lot of things, but chowing down on a couple of those artificially-sweetened sugar-alcohol bars would give you one mondo case of the trots.  Eating Paleo actually heals your gut, so cheating makes you feel worse, more hungry, and more lousy.

As people continue to try this out, for free, for themselves, they'll continue to buy books like The Paleo Solution and The Primal Blueprint for themselves and their friends.

This will fit a classic J curve and start to emerge around next April in a big, big way.

Revelations after losing 50 pounds.

Losing over 50 lbs since between mid March and mid October gives a person some perspective.  I think I would have never had a weight issue if not for wheat.

I've cut back on added sugars, sweeteners, and all sorts of novel food groups losing weight.  I feel tons better and feel a bit like Jonah or one of the other prophets must have felt, burdened by some truth or experience that's nearly impossible to convey to another human.

Just try it, I want to scream.... what could it hurt....

Just quit wheat.

Most people aren't as "far gone" as I was, peaking 310 or 315 in March, and even larger in the couple of years before that.  All of those extra pounds, years of digestive issues, and various other issues....

Just elimination of all wheat products, I think, from around age 10 would have corrected my asthma, weight issues, and probably saved my gallbladder.  This is the conclusion I'm left with, as wheat elimination seems to be the largest part of my weight loss and improved health.

And since I'm bitter about the subject, I'll just add that it's whacky that the government guidelines or what to eat are set by the Department of Agriculture.

http://www.foodpyramid.com/mypyramid/

Seriously.

"In 2005 the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) released a food pyramid called MyPyramid, which was designed to educate people about the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans"

Grains
MyPyramid recommends that at least 50% of the grains should be whole grain.
Eat at least 3 ounces of whole grain breads, crackers, cereals, crackers, rice or pasta everyday.

Why do we need "at least 3 ounces"?  Oh, well.

It's kind of interesting that there is a nice collection of diets "represented" on the website, and there's some Paleo representation on this site:

http://www.foodpyramid.com/diets/stone-age-diet/

Forks Over Knives: Misconceptions

"Forks Over Knives", a whole food vegan diet documentary has a lot of good points.  

Okay, one good point.  It advocates eating whole foods.  Great.  But it's reasons for not eating meat comes from some sort or Kindergarten statement you've probably heard.

"Eating meat is inefficient."

The story goes as follows, it takes some amount of energy to produce a plant calorie and something like ten times that amount of energy to produce an animal calorie.  So what? 

Find ANY vegan commune and you'll notice a literal ton of animal calories and insect calories that are available and that are not utilized.  If efficiency was truly the issue, killing and eating local herbivores and insects is a no-brainer.  The fact is, animals and insects frequent the same geomes that produce plant matter.  

I really don't know how to make this any clearer.  In my home state of Mississippi, there is a ton of woodlands and ponds that are not being used to produce vegetables or fruit, but in which sustainable hunting is a very real (and common) reality.

This is clear to me, but efficiency is not an issue here.  This land is perfectly balanced and hunted upon and provides animal protein to the local people.  This is an efficient and preferred way of obtaining protein, fats, and calories.  

Fatty foods and Mary Jane

Mark deals with a new fat study on his blog.

It finds that fat may trigger the same mental pathways that trigger endocannabinoids, a chemical triggered by smoking the reefer.  This reveals how marijuana exploits our neurochemistry.  We know that fruit got a selective advantage by exploiting our taste buds by being sweet (one of our body's methods for determining nutrient and mineral density).  

Taste is not enough, however, and our bodies needed to develop redundant systems for motivating us to eat saturated animal fats.  Marijuana exploits a secondary system.  Very cool stuff.